Vacation-o-rama Part 1: Virginia

This year's vacation was a doozy. We were gone for almost 2 weeks, visited tons of family, saw Abraham Lincoln, swam in the Atlantic, ate clams, drank way too much, and even climbed on a creepy giant statue buried alive under the sand.

And there's so much more.

So instead of blogging about it all at once, I thought I would break it down into parts and try to share as many pictures as possible.

I took a lot of pictures. A ridiculous, insane amount of pictures. Anyone is welcome to go see them all here. They are not public, though, so if you don't have permission and want it you can e-mail me or drop a line in the comments and I will gladly give you clearance.

So let's begin, shall we.

We left June 25th and headed to Virginia to see my half brother. First and foremost, Virginia is absolutely gorgeous.

The entire drive through that state looked like this.

A little back story: Ronnie is my half brother from my father's marriage before he married my mom. Got that?

I hadn't seen him in 9 years. This visit was long overdue.

See the resemblance? We both look a lot like my dad.

This beautiful lady is Ronnie's mom, Rita. She drove 3 hours to see us while we were there and I'm so glad she did.

And then there's this kid.

Oh boy. The cuteness is blinding.

This is Katie, and she's lucky she didn't end up in my suitcase.

I think we were there a grand total of 15 minutes before the kids were in the pool. It was a gorgeous day.

Too sweet, right? My kids loved Katie so much.

I didn't even ask them to pose like this. They were just lying together and I frantically searched for my camera while I screamed "Don't move! Stay there until I get my camera!!"

We had a bonfire that night (in their amazing wooded back yard) complete with s'mores.

These things could be about 47% less messy, but I guess that's the "experience".

There's that face again.

The morning we left, Ronnie gave the kids a drive around in the trailer behind the lawn mower. I have video of this, but it took me long enough to upload all 900 and some-odd pictures, so I haven't even gotten to video yet.

We were only there for one night, but I can't tell you how much it meant to me to see Ronnie, Linda, and Rita again and to meet precious Katie.

Sometimes lives change so much and so quickly that you don't keep up with loved ones the way you should. This was one of those situations. I regret that it took so long for us to reconnect, but I can promise that we have a lot to look forward to.

Speaking of regrets, there's this.

I think I might be in trouble for that one.